According to the 2010 annual RAPEX report, the EU's rapid alert system for non-food dangerous products ("RAPEX") has increased its effectiveness with a record of 2,244 unsafe products banned, withdrawn from the market or recalled from consumers in 2010, up 13% compared with 2009.

This increase is due in part because Member States have upped their game and European businesses are also taking their responsibilities in the consumer product safety area more seriously, with a marked increase (200%) in the use of the dedicated rapid alert system for business ('GPSD Business Application'). Safety at source has become a key focus, with attention now moving right back to the factory floor (design and manufacturing), and work with international partners is growing, in particular with China. As regards China, the number of notifications on products from this country through RAPEX showed a slight decrease (of 2%, from 60% in 2009 to 58% in 2010). 17% were of European origin and 10% were of unknown origin and 15% were from other countries.

Since the introduction of RAPEX in 2004, when the General Product Safety Directive, was transposed into the national laws, notifications have increased from 468 (2004) to 2,244 (2010). The increased capacity and efficiency is attributed to:

• more active product safety enforcement by national authorities, including through specific projects
• better allocation of resources
• greater awareness among businesses of their obligations
• enhanced cooperation with third countries, in particular China
• network-building and training coordinated by the European Commission.

In addition, the focus for the future will be on quality and usefulness of the notifications. With regard to the products notified, clothing and textiles (625 notifications) were the most frequently notified products (suffocation and irritation risks) followed by toys (488 notifications), (mainly choking risk), and motor vehicles (175 notifications), (risk of injury), which together accounted for 66% of all notifications on products posing a serious risk in 2010.

Commissioner in charge of Health and Consumer Policy, John Dalli welcomed the good data but, he stressed that companies must design out safety risks from the start, manufacturers must manage the quality of the manufacturing process, checking the final products coming off the conveyor belt.